Bach at Leipzig: A Play [Paperback]

Itamar Moses (Author), Tom Stoppard (Preface)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 29, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0571211119 | ISBN-13: 978-0571211111 | Edition: 1st

Leipzig, Germany, 1722: Johann Kuhnau, revered organist of the Thomaskirche, suddenly dies, leaving his post vacant. In order to fill the position, the city council invites a small number of musicians to audition for the appointment, including Johann Sebastian Bach. This, however, is not his story. Based on actual events, Bach at Leipzig imagines with uncommon intelligence and wit how six little-known musicians resorted to bribery, blackmail, and betrayal in an attempt to secure the most coveted musical post in all of Europe.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“An artistic and cerebral triumph . . . for Moses and contemporary theater as a whole.” —Lacey Sadoff, Marquette Tribune

About the Author

Itamar Moses is the author of several plays, including Outrage, Celebrity Row, and The Four of Us.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Faber & Faber; 1st edition (September 29, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0571211119
• ISBN-13: 978-0571211111
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 6.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,323,796 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Revived My Interest in Contemporary American Theater, November 13, 2005

By 

Political Theorist (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bach at Leipzig: A Play (Paperback)

I owe a tremendous debt to this play and to Itamar Moses. I went to an early production in Ithaca, New York and found it so intellectually powerful and riotously funny that I became an avid follower of the contemporary theater scene and of Moses especially. You cannot read this play and continue thinking that modern America is a cultural wasteland. Moses combines artistic substance, formal ingenuity, and fall-out-of-your-seat humor to create an experience that delights you while you're in it and stays with you afterward. BUY THIS BOOK AND READ IT! Your hope for America's arts will be restored.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars brilliant, October 30, 2005

By 

wahi guy - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bach at Leipzig: A Play (Paperback)

To describe this play as riotously funny doesn't do justice to its vast intelligence. The form and content of Bach@Leipzig are inextricably linked in surprising (and, yes, hilarious) ways. And there are beautiful themes here: about the power of self delusion; and ambition; and music. This play is just that - musical, ambitious and deliciously delusional. I can't recommend it highly enough.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "The man performed his own dirge with his face.", December 11, 2005

By 

Luan Gaines "luansos" (Dana Point, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bach at Leipzig: A Play (Paperback)

Gathered to replace the highly respected organist of the Thomaskirsche in Leipzig, Germany in 1722, a select group of composers aspire to this coveted position. Patronage is the key to survival in an era when good fortune and fame are the products of such an esteemed recommendation. As the six composers assemble, awaiting a decision, religion, politics and occupation are inextricable, Leipzig a Lutheran stronghold against the advances of Catholicism. One by one, each composer expresses his convictions and beliefs, assured that his is the righteous path. Introducing the characters, each act is prefaced by a composer penning a letter outlining his desire for to be organist, the missives then flown by carrier pigeon to the addressees.

Various characters gather for clandestine meetings, making deals to diminish the competition, revealing their personal agendas. When the entire group is together, the conversation is laced with double entendres and a purposeful manipulation of facts, their apparent bonhomie a façade for the negotiations in play. Since the Reformation, religion is integral to such affair, as is politics, the competing factions proffering a variety of beliefs on Predestination, Lutheran traditionalism challenged by the Calvinist's "standards" for achieving heaven, while Pietists "embrace an individual spirituality that frees them from all limits", pure joy available to everyone, divorced from God..

Based on real persons and events, this ingenious play reveals the farcical manipulations and skullduggery behind the scenes, as the musicians resort to bribery and blackmail, religious concerns set aside in a bid for the coveted position. The humor is pervasive, the contestants revealing their very human flaws and willingness to negotiate in the pursuit of success. Both politics and religion converge as the play evolves, a drawing room farce that reaches beyond the secluded world of this appointment, contretemps exposed in an intimate exchange of broad humor, a subtle reminder that "politics is only war by other means", proving once more that nothing is what it seems. Murder and mayhem aside, the composers are faced with an age-old conundrum, "People... have little interest in music or religion. I don't know what they will call this age... its chief characteristic is a profound lack of enlightenment." Luan Gaines/ 2005.